Buttermilk Berry Muffins

After yesterday's all day, or so it seemed, intense recipe I chose to keep things simple and go back to basics today. Muffins are pretty basic and the only way I could mess things up was if I mixed them too much! Alton Brown's words always come back to me when I make a recipe that should only be mixed by hand ten times! And those words are, " walk away, just drop the spoon and walk away!"
One of the vendors from the Saturday farmer's market loves my fresh blueberry scones and buys them every week. Last Saturday he brought me a pint of beautiful blackberries and said he thought maybe they would work in a scone recipe.
Well this morning I made and froze my usual batches of scones for the upcoming weekend and decided to try a few with the blackberries. I kept one out and test baked it and it really came out fine..so it looks like a certain vendor will be eating blackberry scones this Saturday!

So on to today's post. These muffins come from a wonderful site, " joyofbaking". I love reading the recipes on this site, and there are so many!
Since I had to use the rest of the blackberries up before they went bad, I decided to put them into this muffin recipe, along with a handful of blueberries I had left over. I also chose this one because I had a quart of buttermilk in the fridge still unopened and I wanted to use some of that, too.
The muffins are moist and full of flavor from lots of lemon zest and they're not too sweet. Perfect with the fresh berries and so easy to make. Just the usual wet and dry ingredients gently mixed together, then baked. I made 6 jumbo muffins rather than 12 regular sized and I wound up with more batter than I needed so I made 2 extra regular sized. Must have been those huge blackberries taking up so much room!


Start by combining the dry ingredients and the zest in one bowl and whisking the wet ingredients in another bowl.

Add the berries to the dry and gently fold them in.

Now here comes the important part... using a rubber spatula, fold the wet into the dry and mix only til just combined! Then..yes..you know..stop mixing! You should still see flour and that's okay. Don't overmix!

Scoop the batter into your prepared muffin cups. ( I guess I could have put more into each cup and been fine but I wound up with extra batter and I made 2 regular size muffins with the extra). The recipe says to fill each almost full.

Then bake about 20 minutes or til a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Buttermilk Berry Muffins ( from "joyofbaking" site)


Makes 12 regular or 6 jumbo muffins

2 1/2 cups AP flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

Zest of whole lemon or orange

1 large egg, lightly beaten

3/4 cup buttermilk

2/3 cup safflower or canola oil ( I used canola)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 - 2 cups fresh or frozen berries, (blueberries, raspberries or blackberries)

Preheat oven to 375. Position rack to middle. Spray muffin cups or place liners in each.

1. Whisk the egg, buttermilk, oil and vanilla in a medium bowl.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and zest.

3. Gently fold the berries into the dry ingredients.

4. With a rubber spatula, fold the wet ingredients into the dry and stir only til just combined. Don't overmix!

5. Fill each cup to almost full and bake about 20 minutes, or til tester comes out clean.

6. Cool 5 minutes in pan, then remove and cool completely on wire rack. Dust with confectioner's sugar if desired.

Cheese Blintzes with Blueberry Sauce

It's been years since I made blintzes and I've been thinking about them a lot lately. I had a friend many years ago that gave me her recipe and I was making them nonstop back then.

Blintzes, although mainly popular in Jewish cuisine, take many forms and names, depending on the country. France has the crepe, Russia has the blini or bliny, although this, I believe, is made with yeast.

When I looked for my friend's recipe in my shoebox filled to the brim with old hand written recipes from friends and family, I didn't see it. So after checking other recipes on line I actually decided to use a fabulous manicotti recipe I make and just add a little sugar! So, add another country to the list..yup..Italy has the manicotti! This manicotti recipe, by the way, is so great that if you need that recipe, use this one but leave out the sugar. They are light as air, thin and delicate.
For the filling I used a mix of cottage cheese and sour cream. I added some lemon zest, which goes so well with the blueberry sauce. Top with a dollop of sour cream and you've got one great dessert. Great for breakfast, too!




It gets messy..but it's so good!
Whisk the eggs, milk, sugar and butter in a large bowl.
Gradually whisk in the flour and salt and mix til smooth.
Refridgerate at least 1 hour.


I bought the type of cottage cheese that has quite a bit of liquid. Drain out as much liquid from the cottage cheese as possible. Just push down the cheese through a strainer. If you find a cottage cheese that is thicker you won't have this step.

Place the cottage cheese, sour cream, lemon zest, salt and sugar in a small bowl and stir to combine. Pop in the fridge to chill about 1 hour.

Once the batter has been chilled, give it a good stir, then get your pan ready to make the blintzes.

I use a nonstick pan and I highly recommend it!

Place a little butter in the hot pan and swirl it around to coat.

Using a ladle, scoop some batter and pour into your pan, rotating and swirling the pan til it spreads and forms a nice circle. Don't worry..the first is always the most difficult!

Always start your heat on high, but turn down to medium high. You want a nice consistent heat throughout the cooking. You may not need to use too much butter for the pan, as there's a lot in the batter.

When it begins to look slightly brown on the edges, flip it over carefully, using a spatula.

Let it cook only about 30 seconds on the second side.

Then shake it out of the pan and onto a plate.

Keep going til they're all cooked, stacking them as you go.

Once they're all stacked, take each one and place a heaping tablespoonful of the filling onto the center.

Fold the bottom up, then fold over each side, then flip over for the final fold.

And you have nice neat little blintz packages waiting to be heated in more butter!

For the sauce, in a small saucepan, heat your blueberries, sugar, butter, lemon juice, cornstarch and salt. Bring to boil, then lower to a simmer and stir til berries begin to break down and release their juices. Set aside to cool down.

Makes a great sauce.

Cheese Blintzes with Blueberry Sauce

Makes 12 - 15 depending on size

Filling:
16 oz. cottage cheese

1/4 cup sour cream

1 tsp. lemon zest

1 1/2 tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

Blintzes:

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

3 tbsp. melted butter

1 cup AP flour

2 tbsp sugar

Pinch of salt

Sauce:

2 cups fresh blueberries

6 tbsp. sugar

1 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp. cornstarch

Pinch coarse salt

To make blintzes:

1. In large bowl, whisk eggs, milk, sugar and butter.

2. Gradually whisk in flour and salt and mix til smooth.

3. Refridgerate for 1 hour.

To make filling:

1. Combine cottage cheese ( drained as in notes above if necessary), sour cream, sugar, lemon zest and salt.

2. Cover and refridgerate 1 hour.

To make sauce:

1. Stir all the ingredients in a small saucepan place on high heat just til mixture begins to boil. Turn down the heat to a simmer, stirring constantly, til the berries just begin to break down and release their juices. Set aside.

To assemble:

Referring to my notes above:

Make the blintzes, stacking them as they are made.

Fill each one with the filling and fold over.

Once they're all made heat a nonstick pan and coat lightly with butter.

Cook the blintzes on medium low heat on both sides. It's better to cook them slowly over low heat so the insides heat up nicely and they don't get too browned.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some blueberry sauce.

Note :

The blintzes can be frozen, unfilled. Be sure to put plastic wrap between each layer.

The filled blintzes can also be frozen, uncooked.

Mini Fruit Tarts

I wanted to offer something a little different for the Farmer's Market this weekend since it was a Holiday. I decided to keep the tartlette idea going and chose to make these sweet pastry crust mini fruit tarts.
The crust was easy to make and easy to handle and the filling went together in no time. I actually had fun creating different designs out of the berries. I found the recipe here and used cream cheese, rather than mascarpone cheese. The recipe made 4 mini tarts.
I read, somewhere online but I can't remember where, about pouring a layer of chocolate onto the baked crust before you fill the tart with the cream cheese filling, to keep it from becoming soft. That's what I did and these were so good!

Fresh Fruit Mini Tarts( adapted from joyofbaking)

Sweet Pastry Crust

1 1/2 cups AP flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temp.
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Filling:

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese or cream cheese
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

1. To make crust: Sift or whisk flour and salt. Set aside.
2. Place butter in mixer bowl and beat til softened.
3. Add sugar and beat til light and fluffy.
4. Gradually add beaten egg, beating just til incorporated. Don't overmix.
5. Add flour mixture all at once and mix on low til it forms a ball of dough. Don't overmix dough or it will be hard when baked.
6. Place dough on plastic wrap and shape into a disc and refridgerate til firm, approx. 30 minutes.
7. Roll dough out to 1/8" thick. Place dough into fluted tart pan with removable bottom and prick all over bottom with a fork.
8. Place back in fridge 20 minutes.
9. Preheat oven to 400 and, when chilled, line crust with foil and fill with dried beans or rice.
10. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or til golden. Cool completely before filling.
**At this point, if you'd like, you can melt some semisweet chocolate in a double boiler and pour and spread a thin layer of chocolate onto the baked cooled crust.
Filling:

1. Place all the ingredients into a mixer bowl and beat til smooth.
2. Fill tart with filling and decorate with fresh blueberries, raspberries, strawberries or any other fruit you like.
3. Warm some fruit jam, such as apricot, peach, blackberry, etc. and brush over fruit to give a nice shiny look. Refridgerate til ready to serve.

Blueberry Lemon Scones

Before about 2 years ago, I had never eaten a scone, much less made one, but from the very beginning, as I researched this delicious breakfast treat, I knew that I had my work cut out for me. I mean scones have gotten a bad reputation. Most people expect them to have a kind of sawdust texture, dry and tasteless! So I tried tons of recipes and tweeked every one to get my own version just right, ( not just my opinion!), I knew I could not stop playing around with the recipe until I had everything just right.
Now, I'm happy to report that Saxby's Coffee Shop carries my scones in 3 of their locations and I sell out at the local farmers markets.
Well, I've decided to share...no, not my recipe!!...but my technique for making my scones.
If you want a good scone recipe, just check out the many excellent bakers' recipes on line. Dorie Greenspan has several, just to name one.
I've included lots of pictures so I hope you'll take the time of scroll down, view my step by step instructions and go forth and bake yourself some scones!!
One last note, the scones I chose to show are blueberry lemon. If you decide to make, let's say..cranberry orange, just swap out cranberries for blueberries and change the lemon zest to orange zest.
Put all the dry ingredients into a medium sized bowl and whisk. Zest about half a lemon into the dry mix and work it in with your fingers.

Make sure you have your fat(or fats) very cold. Cut into small pieces and again using your fingers, work the butter ( or butter and shortening) into the flour. Some pieces of fat will be the size of peas and some smaller, some larger.

The mixture should look like above.

It's very important to have all your utensils ready so you don't have to go fishing around in the drawers with sticky fingers to find something.

I use a bench scraper, spatula, fork, dinner knife.

Have a small bowl with about a half cup of flour nearby to flour your hands and the surface onto which you'll be working.

Also have a flat baking sheet (that will fit into your freezer) with a piece of waxed paper ready on the side because these guys are going into the freezer once they're all made and cut...you'll see!

In a small bowl, beat your egg then add the cream.

I throw in a handful of white ( golden) raisins for a bit of extra texture no matter what flavor I'm making.

Pour the wet ( egg and cream) into the dry ingredients and using the fork, stir the mixture gently. If it looks a bit dry, add just a teaspoon of cream at a time and stir.

Now is the time to add the berries. Just sprinkle about 1/4 to 1/3 cup into the mix and stir one or two more times with the fork.

Sprinkle your work surface with flour.

Replace the fork with a spatula.

Once you've replaced the fork with the spatula, dump the mixture onto a floured work surface.

Use your knife to scrape and remaining dough from the spatula ( it's easier to use a knife than getting your fingers all sticky).

Flour your fingers and gently press the dough on top to form a square. The dough should be approx. 1 1/2 inches thick. Use the bench scraper to make nice straight edges. Coat the scraper with flour to prevent sticking. You will be coating the scraper alot!

Once you have formed the dough into the square, coat the scraper on both sides and cut the square in half.

After you have cut the dough in half and you have 2 rectangles, dust the scraper once more with flour and scoop up each half and place onto the prepared sheet covered with waxed paper.

Place the dough rectangles into the freezer, no need to cover them at this point, and let them harden. This will take at least an hour, maybe more.

Once they have hardened, wrap them in the waxed paper and then put into a zip lock bag and put back into the freezer to be used later ( or you could bake them now).

I use this method of freezing, even if I want to bake them the same day. I just find they bake alot better frozen.

When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 400.

Take the scones out of the freezer and using a sharp large knife, cut the rectangles in half, then cut again to make triangles. ( You will be baking them frozen so don't allow them to thaw).

Place the triangles onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Space about 2 " apart.

Brush the tops of each scone with a little of the cream you used in making the scone. Then sprinkle with raw sugar to give them a bit of crunch.

Bake the frozen scones for about 23 minutes. Rotate the sheet pan about halfway through.

The tops should be golden.

They are absolutely best warm, just out of the oven. The outside is crunch and the inside is light and delicious!!

If you have any left over, you can always freeze them. (Thaw and warm in the oven.)

Baking just got a little easier...Yeah!!

Ever think back to a time when you didn't have something you now take for granted, like your cell phone or your computer and wonder how you ever lived without it? Well, the rainy weather, once again, gave me a "free" day today ( no farmer's market) so I decided that it was high time for my next small appliance purchase to make my life a little easier!! Yup... I am now the proud owner of a food processor!! A 14 cup processor to be exact !! I drove to about 5 different stores before I realized the first store I stopped in was the best deal.
I couldn't wait to get home and make something with it!!
I read the recipe booklet that came with it and chose the basic pastry since I had been taught by my Mom how to make a great pie crust by hand but with this machine...what a snap!!
The crust came out so very good and so very easy. Yes, I'm so used to slaving over everything I do , whether it's baking or crafting or painting...or whatever. It's as if I don't spend tons of time working on a project it just won't be good. Boy was I wrong ! You should have seen me in my quilting days. I actually started out making quilts by sewing each piece by hand , then doing all the quilting by hand..Yikes!! Life's too short, ya' know?!!
Since I only had frozen blueberries, I made a few small rustic blueberry tarts. I just sprinkled the frozen berries with some sugar, lemon zest and cornstarch , made the dough, chilled it and rolled it out, filling each with the berries. I brushed the dough with a little beaten egg and sprinkled coarse sugar over top and baked. The crust is quick, easy and delicious!!
Hmmm...wonder what I should try next. Maybe pizza!!

Basic Pastry Dough ( this is half the original recipe)

1 1/3 cups AP flour

1 stick very cold unsalted butter,cut into 1" pieces

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup ice water

Use metal blade to process flour,butter and salt til mixture is like coarse meal ( about 8 seconds). Add ice water and pulse til dough begins to clump together. Do not let it form a ball. Wrap in plastic forming dough into a disc and chill in fridge 1 hour. Roll onto a lightly floured surface. This should be enough to make 1 pie shell with a little left over, maybe enough for a lattice top crust. Bake at the temp. recommended for whatever pie you're making. (I baked mine at 425.)

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins Streusel Topping

I was on another quest recently. This time for muffins and this blueberry muffin recipe is really great! It was moist and full of flavor and you really should try it! I got the cookbook out of the library but also found it on another blog site. It was from Carole Walter's book " Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More". I halved the recipe as I usually do if I am testing it out. And I used a bigger and more shallow muffin pan so I would have more room for the topping. Happy Baking!!